ALAN DERSHOWITZ TO NEWSMAX TV: MUELLER REPORT UNFAIR TO TRUMP
Jason Devaney
The Mueller report should never have been written in its current form because it is unfair to President Donald Trump, who was found not to have committed a crime, attorney Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.
During an appearance on "Newsmax Now," Dershowitz reacted to the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian collusion and said it will give Democrats a "roadmap" to pursue more investigations and, potentially, an impeachment.
"He's been vindicated legally, but factually, morally, politically, there's a lot in there that will be used by Democrats to try to show that although he may not have committed criminal conduct, he certainly committed conduct that's not desirable by a president," Dershowitz said.
"That's exactly why there should never have been a Mueller report. The tradition of the Justice Department — a very good one, we remember when [former FBI Director James] Comey violated it with Hillary Clinton — is that when you decide not to charge somebody with a crime, you then don't write a series of essays, or in this case a book, about all the bad things that they did that didn't amount to criminal conduct. That seems to be very, very unfair, and that's the negatives that have come out of this for President Trump."
Dershowitz added he has thought for months Mueller would exonerate Trump but lay out the evidence that could have been used to charge the president with a crime.
"I predicted months ago that he would provide a roadmap to Congress for further investigations, impeachments – also a roadmap for other prosecutors in various districts of the United States. And he's done exactly that," Dershowitz said.
"That's appropriate if you do it discreetly. . . . But when you issue a public report that includes innocent conduct, non-criminal conduct, however conduct that is condemnable, not criminal, that really violates the long tradition of the Justice Department in the same way that Comey violated the traditions of the Justice Department when he accused Hillary Clinton of being sloppy with her emails after concluding that she committed no crime."